Related papers: Proton Decay and the Planck Scale
We investigate supersymmetric models where neither R-parity nor lepton number nor baryon number is imposed. The full high energy theory has an exact horizontal U(1) symmetry that is spontaneously broken. Quarks and Higgs fields carry…
We show that most features of the mass and mixing pattern of the second and third SM fermion families can be accounted for without making use of flavour symmetries or other types of flavour dynamics. We discuss the implications for flavour…
Product group unification is an attractive alternative to simple grand unification. It solves the infamous doublet-triplet splitting problem and the dimension-5 proton decay problems without introducing any fine-tuning. Furthermore, the…
We devise minimalistic gauged U(1)_X Froggatt-Nielsen models which at low-energy give rise to the recently suggested discrete gauge Z_6 symmetry, proton hexality, thus stabilizing the proton. Assuming three generations of right-handed…
We argue that the fermion masses and mixings are organized in a specific pattern. The approximately equal hierarchies between successive generations, the sizes of the mixing angles, the heaviness of just the top quark, and the approximate…
Models of supersymmetric grand unified theories based on SU(5)_GUT \times U(N)_H gauge group (N = 2,3) have a symmetry that guarantees light Higgs doublets and absence of dimension-five proton decay operators. We analysed the proton decay…
Since the main experimentally testable prediction of grand unified theories is the instability of the proton, precise determination of the proton lifetime for each particular model is desirable. Unfortunately, the corresponding computation…
In a model of supersymmetric SU(5) Grand Unification with a spatial dimension described by the orbifold $S^1/(Z_2 \times Z_2')$, proton decay is naturally suppressed at all orders. This is achieved by a suitable implementation of the…
The absence so far of any supersymmetric signals at the LHC pushes towards a rethinking of the assumptions underlying the MSSM. Because the large missing $E_T$ searches are inadequate to detect a LSP decaying within the detector, R-parity…
We carry out a systematic study of the bounds that can be set on Planck-scale deformations of relativistic symmetries and CPT from precision measurements of particle and antiparticle lifetimes. Elaborating on our earlier work [1] we discuss…
We investigate a simple realistic grand unified theory based on the $SU(5)$ gauge symmetry which predicts an upper bound on the proton decay lifetime for the channels $p \to K^+ \bar{\nu}$ and $p \to \pi^+ \bar{\nu}$, i.e. $\tau (p \to K^+…
We calculate the contribution to the proton decay amplitude from Kaluza-Klein lepto-quarks in theories with extra dimensions, localised fermions and gauge fields which propagate in the bulk. Such models naturally occur within the context of…
We construct and discuss a "realistic" example of SUSY SU(5) GUT model, with an additional U(1) flavour symmetry, that is not plagued by the need of large fine tunings, like those associated with doublet-triplet splitting in the minimal…
We reconsider dimension-five proton decay operators, making semi-quantitative remarks which apply to a large class of supersymmetric GUTs in which the short-distance operators are correlated with the fermion Yukawa couplings. In these GUTs,…
In models with a low quantum gravity scale, one might expect sizable effects from nonrenormalizable interactions that violate the global symmetries of the standard model. While some mechanism must be invoked in such theories to suppress…
We consider a minimal non-supersymmetric $SO(10)$ Grand Unified Theory (GUT) model that can reproduce the observed fermionic masses and mixing parameters of the Standard Model. We calculate the scales of spontaneous symmetry breaking from…
Within the framework of unified gauge models, interactions responsible for neutrino masses can also provide mechanisms for nucleon instability. We discuss their implications concretely in the light of recent results on neutrino oscillation…
We construct realistic supergravity models where supersymmetry breaking arises from the D-terms of an anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry broken at the Planck scale. Effective action for these theories at sub-Planck energies (including higher…
We study the simplest renormalizable scalar leptoquark models where the standard model is augmented only by one additional scalar representation of SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1). The requirement that there be no proton decay from renormalizable…
Hadronic matrix elements of operators relevant to nucleon decay in grand unified theories are calculated numerically using lattice QCD. In this context, the domain-wall fermion formulation, combined with non-perturbative renormalization, is…